I actually enjoyed the scene later on with Hope and Snow. Hell, I ate up all the melodrama in the game and could have helped myself to seconds. It was campy, completely lacked any subtlety, and I loved every minute of it.

I guess I just don't get it. She just seems like a normal person who wants to protect her son. What the heck is so awful about her?

As a depiction of a person, Nora isn't too bad for an FF game, but Nora's primary role is that of a plot device, like Anna in FFIV. She's there to be dead and for other characters to come to blows over that fact.

Also the game really loves bad irony/'coincidences' like the NORA > Nora thing, or that most of the characters have names associated with White or Light like Lightning, Snow, Vanille, Hope (more metaphorical than literal, but the implication is there). There are exceptions like Sazh and some other characters, but unfortunately, there's generally a reason for those.

Plus, Hope's likability wavers throughout the series. So much so that things associated with him can, at times, seem awful by association.

I remember when it first came out, Resonance of Fate came out around the same time. I thought for sure that I would love Resonance of Fate and not really like FFXIII. The opposite happened. I couldn't really get into RoF but I ended up really enjoying FFXIII.

My favorite scene (which it seems Frosty hasn't gotten to yet) is when

Hope was sleeping and muttered "mom?" and Lightning quietly sighed, "not by a longshot."

It was one of those "quiet" scenes that just gripped me.

And later on, Bravely Default and FFXIII: Lightning Returns came out around the same time. Bravely Default was totally in my wheelhouse, but I couldn't get into it at all. On the other hand, Lightning Returns was a lot of fun despite not being the type of game I normally go for.

And let me tell you, Hope becomes a respectable character in the later FFXIII games. In the whole Fabula Nova Crystallis universe featuring FFXIII and all its spinoffs, I feel like Hope is the character who shows the most growth and development.

EDIT: Joke response- toughest mom in JRPGs is Macha from Chrono Cross, and I expound on why in my Chrono Cross playlog.

« Last Edit: June 26, 2017, 06:26:48 PM by Dincrest »

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"Golly, why can't I act right outside of a baseball game?" -Peppermint Patty

I want to go on record saying the Steam port of this game is crap. Stutters like itís going out of style. I know itís not my hardware, cuz other demanding games run just fine, and the graphics card isnít even getting that hot. I have a bit of the buyerís remorse. Oh well..., the investment has been made.

Is it weird that I kinda.... choked up a bit at Hope's mom dying? And really, all the civilians. It all turned out how you'd expect a group of civilians who just took up arms against a military to turn out, but I found myself much more moved at Snow's massive error this time around.

I look at it the same way Aeolus does. She comes onto the scene all like: "I told you moms are tough!" ... *dies*. It was actually rather humorous in how it was carried out. I'm assuming they go into her background more as the game progresses. They should have established more before her passing. Cuz as it is to me now, she just seemed like a cocky and reckless dum-dum nobody.Now, all of the citizens dying en masse, yeah that's messed up. Can't wait to see who's making these crazy calls. He/she must be "one cold sumbitch."

So, I did manage to play up until Lake Bresha and explored it a bit. Also had fun playing around with Paradigms again. I've randomized builds for all the characters, so I'm ready to go when the system completely opens up. For now, though, I find myself using all the same classic paradigms I used last time! Relentless Assault, Tri-Disaster, Delta Attack, Solidarity, etc etc.

A weird quirk I can't remember is how Ravager's attacks work. I know they use magic (like Thunder, Fire, etc), which deal damage based on your Magic stat. But they also have those elemental weapon attacks. Those still use your Strength stat to calculate damage, yes? I'll have to peruse a faq at some point to refresh myself with the deeper aspects of the combat and customization.

Logged

"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

So, I did manage to play up until Lake Bresha and explored it a bit. Also had fun playing around with Paradigms again. I've randomized builds for all the characters, so I'm ready to go when the system completely opens up. For now, though, I find myself using all the same classic paradigms I used last time! Relentless Assault, Tri-Disaster, Delta Attack, Solidarity, etc etc.

A weird quirk I can't remember is how Ravager's attacks work. I know they use magic (like Thunder, Fire, etc), which deal damage based on your Magic stat. But they also have those elemental weapon attacks. Those still use your Strength stat to calculate damage, yes? I'll have to peruse a faq at some point to refresh myself with the deeper aspects of the combat and customization.

The gist of it is that the game doesn't like it when you spam the same moves over and over again and it'll penalize your Staggering/Damage Multiplier rate gains unless you mix it up. Hence why Auto-Battle is such a clever trap, because it does that mixing for you because otherwise you'll never notice or care why your Stagger/Damage Multipliers are slowing down. That being said, this becomes far less of an issue later on when you have Roles and Options you can use to mix it up more naturally.

OK, Saturday morning, and jacked on a bunch of coffee. Time to dive back in here.

Time to explore lake Bresha. Gotta catch up with hotshot Arvis. I think I pretty much have the gist on the battle role/paradigm thing. Part of my deal in playing this blind is learning as I go, so onward we go:

After looking around for a minute, a cut scene involving Snow being annoying as all get out occurs. Seriously, all I can think when he starts going off is "Dude. Shut. Up." While he is doing his soapbox thing this time around, enemy combatants engage the party and nearly get the upper hand, until Lightning performs some fancy acrobatics while the bad guys watch and yell at her. After the battle tutorial explaining manual commands, Snow and Lighthning melodramatically argue while Vanille acts like an impulsive weirdo and gets the party moving. Man, is that chick strange...

After getting used to the paradigm shift mechanic, turns out I like it. I dare say, I think I might actually be enjoying the battles in this game. That's of course a very good thing, because of how linear exploration is.

The party eventually comes across SERAH!! SERAH!! NO ONE HAS EVER HAD FEELINGS FOR ANYONE LIKE I DO FOR YOU, SERAH!! NO, LIGHTNING! I FEEL MORE FOR SERAH THAN YOU EVER COULD!! Lightning truly becomes the game's hero to me at this point by punching Snow in his I HAVE SO MUCH RESOLVE face a few times. Unfortunately, the group of emotionally underdeveloped peoples is discovered by something that looks like it came from the first Matrix movie, and is attacked. Paradigm shifts are explained, but I've pretty much got it at this point.After the tusle, Snow decides to stay behind to guard Serah, I assume. It's never made clear through all of the melodramatic verbosity. I'm just thankful he's going away for a bit. I do like him in battle, and I'm going to miss having a tank ("Sentinal"), but glass/Rucks used the perfect word to describe Snow when he said "insufferable". I like how when Vanille states concern for him two seperate times, no one responds.I forgot about using points in the Crystarium, so I quckly spent a few minutes beefing up characters. It may relieve Rucks to hear that I'm starting to get the hang of this whole development system, and actually kind of like it at this point. It was just a little off-putting at first. It actually reminds me of Xillia's system a bit.Gotta give one thing to Lightning, she knows just how to slice an abandoned turrent so that it fires right into the wall blocking the path. Impressive swordsmanship, indeed. We get into another tutorial fight against a behemoth, explaining technique usage, specifically Libra. Our heroes eventually come to the wreckage of the ... I forgot what it's called. The thing that fell and caused the lake's crystalization. The party takes a moment to reflect on their dire situation, but decides to keep moving after enemy ships sweep the area, looking for survivors. After hopping up a bunch of cliffs while Sazh incessantly whines about his age, the party comes to a point where they can admire the scenerly and patake in even more self-reflection, or downright depressiveness, in Lightning's case.

Eventually, we come to the Gates of Antiquity. I like the seamless music change upon arrival. Sounds kind of like a childlike Enya.

I suffer my first defeat/Game Over here, at the hands of a bunch of Watch Drones. Mainly because I didn't switch to a defensive paradigm in time. Got too caught up in trying to fill out stagger gauges. Anyway, after much exploring and battling, we arrive at what looks like a room set up for a boss battle. Vanille wanders away in her developmentally-disabled fashion (How old is she supposed to be? Is her behavior lost in translation, or something?), and gets assaulted by the *SURPRISE* room's boss.A combination of Tri-Disaster and Renegade Assault synergies handle this foe easily enough. The game thought I did a shit job and gave me 2 stars, though. Asshole. Crystarium expansion and role additions are the real benefits of this fight, though. Awesome. The party finds a ship in which to escape, and we cut to a save prompt.

We cut away to Snow Ball, who is still dramatically trying to free Serah from her crystal heaven/prison. He is discovered by the enemy, who assaults him in a very inefficient manner. Snow fights valiantly (I seriously love this guy in battle, but he is such a tool, i'm torn over it), but becomes overwhelmed. Suddenly, he glows a pretty blue and some serious magic happens. Two half-motorcycle women team up and throw spectral wheels at the surrounding enemies. I assume this is some sort of summon. Turns out these things are called Eidolons, and Snow's gotta face them in battle to earn thier favor. I see it's won by filling some kind of gauge... After a few tries, I filled the gestalt gauge enough, and then Shiva turns into a motorcycle that Snow jumps on, of course. I love this shit.

Sleazy Rider

Snow nearly passes out from the awesome new power, but is then confronted by this lady:

The Ice Queen cometh

-Who promptly becomes my second personal hero of the game by giving him a much-harder-than-it-looks elbow to the face. She hauls Serah and Snow away, revealing that she may be a l'Cie as well.

We cut to our other heroes making a very daring and very unlikely escape in their new ship from some very well armed enemy forces with terrible aim. During a cutscene, the presumably evil Primarch is revealed. It is like, so obvious he gives a crap, but really doesn't. After a short break, the party comes across a Sanctum fal'Cie while being found again by enemy forces. The decide to hide within the Sanctum, but are shot down, and crash into the Vile Peaks.

-Where the crew is ambushed by wild enemies. Afterwards, Sazh and Vanille take a rest while Snow and Hope plod ahead. We bgin by exploring The Dismal Dunescape with Sazh and Vanille. As the duo seem to be trapped, we flash over to a Bodhum flashback again. Lighting has a positive conversation with her commanding officer. We then rejoin Lighting and Hope, as Hope re-joins the battle party and we learn about the supportive role of Synergists.

and we save here, at the early part of what appears to be Chapter 4.

At this point, I'm enjoying my time with the game. I can see all the crap the game gets about being a corridor venture. I mean, you can look at a map and instantly tell where any treasures are. Otherwise though, I think this game is solid. The battle system has become much more enjoyable as it has opened up, and character development is engaging enough. The graphics are fantastic, and the story is interesting. Looking forward to continuing things soon.